No Hero
by ChoCedric
Summary: Ron's point of view of the scene where he walks out on Harry and Hermione in Deathly Hallows. What was he thinking and feeling at the time?


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

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No Hero

By: ChoCedric

Ron Weasley was frustrated, grumpy, angry, every negative emotion you could think of. He was also terribly, terribly exhausted. He, Hermione, and Harry had been camping in the forests for God knows how long, searching for ways to destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes. Ron felt kicked about, like he was sitting on the sidelines watching his two best friends as they nattered on and on about swords and basilisk venom. He longed to be at Hogwarts, or back at the Burrow with his family.

Throughout the last seven years, Ron had always felt like the tagalong, like the one who was always left out. It was as though his friends had totally forgotten about him. To make things even worse, he'd been in love with Hermione Granger for years now, but he knew he'd never be good enough for her. After all, the hero always got the girl, and Harry was the hero. Never mind that he knew Harry liked Ginny; he'd been spending so much time with Hermione this year that Ron was afraid that feelings would develop between them, and then he'd be left out in the dust again.

The locket Horcrux, which the three of them had been taking turns wearing, was also not helping matters. Whenever Ron wore it, it made him feel even more crabby and bad-tempered than ever. It made him think things, and made him feel a lust for power. He wanted to be better than Harry and Hermione, to somehow prove that he was worth more than them. Sometimes, he could swear he heard a voice whispering to him, "I know your fears, Ronald Weasley, I know your secrets. If you get rid of the two obstacles standing in your path, power will be yours."

Out of all his siblings, he felt the least loved. His mum had always wanted a girl, and he felt like the useless little twit who was born instead. He'd been delighted to have Harry's friendship, but often felt that his mum treated Harry better than she treated him. She heaped praise and affection upon the Boy-Who-Lived, and bought him dress robes for the Yule Ball to match the color of his eyes but only bought Ron some moldy, lacy ones. To make matters worse, she wouldn't even cut off the lace for him and told Harry to get a picture when he threatened to go naked! Ron's self-esteem was plummeting by the day on this endless camping trip as the locket made him think back to all those instances he'd felt unloved.

"Ron? Ron?" Harry's irritating voice dragged Ron out of his bitter, sullen thoughts.

Ron didn't answer for a moment. But finally he said, "Oh, remembered me, have you?"

"What?" said Harry, sounding bewildered.

"You two carry on. Don't let me spoil your fun," snorted Ron furiously.

"What's the problem?" his dense best friend asked.

Ron felt even more anger coursing through him as he answered, "Problem? There's no problem. Not according to you, anyway."

Rain started to fall, making the atmosphere of the tent even more ominous. "Well, you've obviously got a problem," said Harry. "Spit it out, will you?"

This was the last straw for the youngest Weasley boy. He swung his legs off the lower bunk, where he had been lying, and sat up. "All right, I'll spit it out. Don't expect me to skip up and down the tent because there's some other damn thing we've got to find. Just add it to the list of stuff you don't know."

This was another thing Ron was angry about. This was a camping trip of doom, and Ron had thought that Harry had a plan. Dumbledore was supposed to have told him a thing or two about their mission, but Harry seemed confused and clueless. He had dragged his friends on an endless quest, and it wasn't right, it wasn't fair.

"I don't know?" repeated Harry, shocked. "I don't know?"

The rain began to fall harder, the plunk! plunk! plunk! sound mirroring the endless amount of furious tears that wanted to fall from Ron's eyes. But he was stoic, and would not let himself cry. Instead, he'd show his emotions by shouting. "It's not like I'm not having the time of my life here," he said, "you know, with my arm mangled and nothing to eat and freezing my backside off every night. I just hoped, you know, after we'd been running round a few weeks, we'd have achieved something."

"Ron," said Hermione in a barely audible voice.

"I thought you knew what you'd signed up for," said Harry.

"Yeah, I thought I did too," Ron agreed.

"So what part of it isn't living up to your expectations?" asked Harry, anger starting to come through in his own voice. "Did you think we'd be staying in five-star hotels? Finding a Horcrux every other day? Did you think you'd be back to Mummy by Christmas?" Venom was dripping from his words now.

"We thought you knew what you were doing!" bellowed Ron, standing up. "We thought Dumbledore had told you what to do, we thought you had a real plan!" Hermione had also expressed her frustration to him too, and he felt more rage course through him as he saw that she wasn't backing him up. Wasn't she on his side when it came to this? Instead she just said, "Ron!" looking aghast.

"Well, sorry to let you down," said Harry stonily. "I've been straight with you from the start, I told you everything Dumbledore told me. And in case you haven't noticed, we've found one Horcrux ..."

"Yeah, and we're about as near getting rid of it as we are to finding the rest of them--nowhere effing near, in other words!" Ron fumed disgustedly.

"Take off the locket, Ron," begged Hermione in a high-pitched voice. "Please take it off. You wouldn't be talking like this if you hadn't been wearing it all day."

"Yeah, he would," argued Harry, making Ron want to punch him. "Do you think I haven't noticed the two of you whispering behind my back? Do you think I didn't guess you were thinking this stuff?"

"Harry, we weren't ..." started Hermione, stricken.

"Don't lie!" Ron roared viciously. "You said it too, you said you were disappointed, you said you'd thought he had a bit more to go on than ..."

"I didn't say it like that--Harry, I didn't!" cried Hermione. Tears began to stream down her face. Half of Ron wanted to go to her, but the other half wanted to scream and rail at her until she was red and puffy-eyed. Wasn't this proof that she was in love with Harry?

"So why are you still here?" asked Harry.

"Search me," Ron snarled.

"Go home, then," Harry bellowed back.

"Yeah, maybe I will!" Ron replied, taking a few steps toward the so-called savior of the wizarding world. "Didn't you hear what they said about my sister? But you don't give a rat's fart, do you, it's only the Forbidden Forest, Harry I've-Faced-Worse Potter doesn't care what happens to her in here--well, I do, all right, giant spiders and mental stuff ..."

"I was only saying--she was with the others, they were with Hagrid ..."

"Yeah, I get it, you don't care! And what about the rest of my family, "the Weasleys don't need another kid injured," did you hear that?" Ron went on, the terror for his family in this time of war gripping at him. Harry claimed to love Ginny, why didn't he give a flying shit about what was happening to her?

"Yeah, I ..." Harry blustered.

"Not bothered what it meant, though?" Ron snapped.

"Ron!" exclaimed Hermione pleadingly. "I don't think it means anything new has happened, anything we don't know about; think, Ron, Bill's already scarred, plenty of people must have seen that George has lost an ear by now, and you're supposed to be on your deathbed with spattergroit, I'm sure that's all he meant ..."

"Oh, you're sure, are you? Right then, well, I won't bother myself about them. It's all right for you two, isn't it, with your parents safely out of the way ..." Ron didn't know what possessed him to say that, but he was so livid that he didn't care at this point. He knew it was a low blow, especially when it came to Harry.

"My parents are dead!" Harry yelled, and Ron knew he'd say that.

But he answered with, "Mine could be going the same way!"

"Then GO!" roared Harry. "Go back to them, pretend you've got over your spattergroit and Mummy'll be able to feed you up and ..."

Ron made to grab his wand, but before any spell could be fired, Hermione shouted, "Protego!" and a barrier sprung between him and Harry.

"Leave the Horcrux," said Harry in a monotone. Ron wrenched the locket off himself and threw it on a chair. Turning to Hermione, he demanded, "What are you doing?"

"What do you mean?" she asked confusedly.

"Are you staying, or what?" Ron asked, a feeling of dread sweeping over him. Here was her chance to prove who she loved more.

"I ..." she said, looking agonized and guilty. "Yes-- yes, I'm staying. Ron, we said we'd go with Harry, we said we'd help ..."

"I get it. You choose him," Ron spat. This made it final. He'd never be good enough for Hermione; she was in love with Harry and nothing Ron could do would change that. He felt like laughing bitterly up towards the sky.

"No, Ron, please, come back, come back!" Hermione screamed, but it was too late. This was only her trying to make him feel better; the damage had already been done.

So Ron ran out into the rain, hearing Hermione's sobs and pleas for him to return, but he did not listen. He felt nothing but hatred as he prepared to disapparate. Have a nice life, you two, was his last vicious thought. I hope you have a bunch of green-eyed, bushy-haired babies.

And then he was gone. Harry and Hermione could be happy together; after all, he, Ron Weasley, was no hero.


End file.
